Chennai: The Central Ministry of Environment and Forests has given its clearance to Karnataka’s draft proposal to build a balancing reservoir across Cauvery at Mekedatu.
The proposed reservoir to be built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore will occupy 4,000 acres of forest land in Kanakapura Assembly constituency and also a small parcel of land from the neighbouring Malavalli. Complete details regarding the area of the project, cost, environmental impact were submitted in the draft proposal by the Karnataka government.
As soon as the Centre gave its go-ahead for the Mekedatu project, Union Minister of State for Finance, Pon Radhakrishnan made his stand clear that he is in complete opposition to the project. “Karnataka building a dam at Mekedatu will harm Tamilnadu and it is completely unacceptable,” the Minister said speaking to reporters at Nagercoil today.
What Tamilnadu wants
It is to be noted that on 8 October, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and asked him to not allow Karnataka to construct a dam across Cauvery at Mekedatu.
He had urged Modi to instruct the Central Water Commission or any other relevant agency to stop forthwith the processing of Karnataka’s proposal to build the reservoir that was submitted earlier.
After meeting Modi, the Chief Minister had said that if the Mekedatu dam proposal is accepted, it will be a ‘clear violation’ of the final order by Cauvery Tribunal and the Supreme Court judgement.
But today, the move by the Centre to allow a dam to come up at Mekedatu is seen as a big set back to the Edappadi Palaniswami government, especially with the possible upcoming by-elections in the State and the looming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
What Karnataka says
Both Karnataka and Tamilnadu had been at loggerheads over the Mekedatu issue for quite some time. While Karnataka is keen on building a reservoir across the Cauvery for its needs, Tamilnadu has been crying foul, saying this will deprive it of its share of the rivers water.
However, Karnataka’s Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar has said in the past that a balancing reservoir at Mekedatu with a storage capacity of 67 tmcft would help in storing excess water which can be released to Tamilnadu during dry months, in addition to taking care of drinking water requirements of several cities and towns of Karnataka.
He had observed that Karnataka was legally bound to ensure the release of water to Tamilnadu on the basis of monthly quota and the dam at Mekedatu would help them do that.